The Allocation of Empty Containers in Liner Shipping— Take Trans-Pacific Route as a Case

• Main Authors: Chen Shu-Fen, 陳淑芬
• Other Authors: Shang-Hsing Hsieh
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2002
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/15221553256075254302

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 運輸科技與管理學系 === 90 === Due to the imbalance of international trade, imbalanced inbound and outbound containers results in the relocation of empty containers problems. Efficient allocation of containers is an important part of a successful implementation of containerized shipping. The costs associated with the acquisition and the movement of containers constitute an important component of a liner operator’ s cost structure. These costs include the storage of empty containers, the lease of containers, and the relocation of empty containers, etc. Unreasonable distribution of empty containers may generate not only greater allocation and storage costs but also a lack of containers for cargo demand and may call for purchasing or leasing additional containers. These paper developed a two-stage model to study the process of containers control in a liner shipping company. First, we analyze the self-production behavior of containers and calculate any imbalance between the supply of and demand for containers at each port. Second, develops a linear programming model capable of dealing with containers leasing , stocking , and relocation in all individual ports in each voyage of planning horizon. The goal of math model is to minimize the total cost of managing empty containers while satisfying customer demand for timely availability of empty containers. In order to develop the math model more realistically , the trans-Pacific route of a global shipping company is taken as the real-world case.